Minoan math

We still do not own Linear A literacy, but we are doing better toward Linear A numeracy. Fractions, three days ago. Michele Corazza, Silvia Ferrara, Barbara Montecchi, Fabio Tamburini, Miguel Valério from Bologna.

The press release boasts the method can help us make remarkable progress into explaining some unresolved issues tied to ancient scripts that are still undeciphered. That is a bit much I think. This to me looks like an outgrowth of the method Elamite scholars used for pre-cuneiform Susa III. We still cannot read that (we don't know if it's even Elamite), but we can follow their maths. Although it is good to have one method successfully used for another script, especially a script as inconsistent as Linear A.

Corazza's dataset is 1600-1450 BC. This is post-Thera, whence tablets are best preserved; also, it avoids the possibility of characters changing over the long span of Minoan civilisation and the length of the Cretan island. Preservation is not nearly as good as Linear B's - and yes, damage was a problem for Corazza's team.

The lowest fraction is 1/60. This implies a Sumerian origin, assuredly mediated via Ebla or some other (para?)Semitic. The Minoan fraction for a tenth (/tithe) in turn carried over to the Mycenaeans.

This agrees well with Ester Salgarella, Aegean Linear Script (s): Rethinking the Relationship between Linear A and Linear B which, based on what I see on Google Books, argues for several local Linear As and one standard Linear B, or as close to one as doesn't stymie modern readers. Linear B, from the "LH II" horizon, developed from the latest "LM IB" Knossian A. Thera being LM IA.